Tag Archives: Janus Friis

Switzerland – A team of more than 50 people from 23 countries, supported by SAM client and Skype co-founder Janus Friis, is launching Wire, a communications network for messaging, voice calling, sharing pictures, music and video on your phone, tablet and desktop.

“Skype was launched more than a decade ago. A lot has changed since then – we are all used to free calls and texting, and we have taken to carrying our computers in our pockets,” said Friis. “It is time to create the best possible communication tools, as beautiful as they are useful. Wire is just that.”

Wire is available on iOS, Android and OS X. It offers communications with an emphasis on high fidelity paired with elegant design. People can use Wire for personal and group messaging, voice calling, sharing pictures, SoundCloud music and YouTube video sharing. Wire conversations are kept in sync across all your devices. It is engineered to take advantage of today’s devices, including iPhone 6, iPads and the latest Android devices.

With deep expertise in media processing technology, Wire’s voice calling benefits from its in-house developed audio technology. This makes calls on Wire sound crisp and clear. By remaining compatible with standard WebRTC, Wire will support audio calls to and from WebRTC compatible browsers.

“We asked ourselves how modern communications could look and work. How could we take full advantage of the latest devices and advances in cloud computing to deliver something that is really simple, very useful and truly beautiful?” said Jonathan Christensen, Wire’s co-founder and CEO. “Today’s launch is the beginning for Wire.”

The company’s team comprises former product and technology leaders from Apple, Skype, Nokia, and Microsoft. Christensen held leadership roles at Microsoft and Skype, and was co-founder and CEO at Camino Networks. Along with Christensen, founders include Alan Duric, Wire’s CTO, a co-founder of Telio (Oslo exchange TELIO) and co-founder of Camino (acquired by eBay/Skype); and Priidu Zilmer, Wire’s head of product design, who led design teams at Vdio and Skype. Wire’s Chief Scientist Koen Vos, created SILK and co-created Opus, the standards for fidelity and intelligibility in voice over IP that billions of people use today.

About Wire

Wire is headquartered in Switzerland and has a development center in Berlin, Germany. Wire is backed by Iconical, a collective of designers, engineers and entrepreneurs including Janus Friis. For more information, visit wire.com.

Los Angeles, CA – September 16, 2013 – Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP announced that it advised Rdio, a subscription music service from the founders of Skype, in a platform integration transaction with Cumulus Media Inc. Cumulus will obtain a significant equity stake in Pulser Media, Rdio’s parent company, in exchange for exclusive content, media and on-air promotional commitments over a five year period. In addition, Rdio will leverage the Cumulus sales infrastructure to monetize its upcoming ad-supported free products, including music on-demand, custom playlists and exclusive content curated by Cumulus.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Cumulus and their robust network of radio stations and premium content,” says Drew Larner, CEO of Rdio. “This monumental deal is the first time a digital and a broadcast platform have come together in this way and we’re eager to bring the Rdio experience to the greater Cumulus listening audience.”

Rdio is the groundbreaking digital music service that is reinventing the way people discover, listen to, and share music. With on-demand access to over 20 million songs, Rdio connects people with music and makes it easy to search for and instantly play any song, album, artist, or playlist without ever hearing a single ad. Discover what friends, people with similar tastes, recording artists, and more are listening to in real-time and share across Twitter and Facebook. Build a digital music collection that’s available everywhere — on the web, in-home or in-car, on tablets or mobile phones, and even offline.

Launched in August 2010, Rdio is headquartered in San Francisco and was founded by Janus Friis, the co-creator of Skype and is currently available in 31 countries. For more information and to sign up, visit www.rdio.com.

About Cumulus Media Inc.

Cumulus Media Inc. (NASDAQ: CMLS) is the largest pure-play radio company in the nation, with approximately 520 owned and operated radio stations, a distribution network reaching nearly 5,500 stations and a content creation platform recently fortified by its pending acquisition of Dial Global. For more information, visit www.cumulus.com.

About Stubbs Alderton & Markiles

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP is a business law firm with robust corporate, public securities, mergers and acquisitions and intellectual property practice groups focusing on the representation of venture backed emerging growth companies, middle market public companies, large technology companies, entertainment and digital media companies, investors, venture capital funds, investment bankers and underwriters. The firm’s clients represent the full spectrum of Southern California business with a concentration in the technology, entertainment, videogame, apparel and medical device sectors. Our mission is to provide technically excellent legal services in a consistent, highly-responsive and service-oriented manner with an entrepreneurial and practical business perspective. These principles are the hallmarks of our Firm.

Stubbs Alderton and Markiles is representing the founders of Skype (Joltid) in its sale to Microsoft. They have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Skype, the leading internet communications company, for $8.5 billion in cash from the investor group Silver Lake.